I spent my early years in Bristol S.W.England, at school my best subjects were art and technical drawing. I started work as an apprentice structural engineer and progressed onto the architectural side of the profession.
In 1972 I immigrated to Yugoslavia. I had always had a flair for painting and drawing and started to paint on canvas for a year or two until I discovered the technique of reverse oil painting on glass. I became fascinated with this technique and studied it in Zagreb while visiting some of the more famous Croatian naïve artists such as Mijo Kovacic, Ivan Generalic and Ivan Lackovic who lived just outside Zagreb. I studied their individual techniques and over a year or two perfected my own style.
I found a market for my paintings in Italy with a smaller market in Germany and after a while became known as ‘the Snowman’ because all I seemed to paint were winter scenes. It took some time for me to start to paint the other seasons but it did open a whole new world I could explore. I still believe my best paintings are winter scenes and I really do not mind being called ‘the Snowman’.
I returned to Britain just before the start of the Balkans' War and had my first exhibition in Highgate Village, London in 1985. I kept my job in architecture to pay the bills but continued painting oil on glass to satisfy my need to express myself. I am now retired so I can concentrate on my painting without any distractions.
Reverse Oil Painting on Glass
Prepare your composition.
Draw out your composition on a sheet of tracing paper-the more detailed the better including your signature and a title if you want to show one. Now turn your tracing paper over so that your drawing is now reversed. Now you are ready to start painting.
Organizing your painting.
You have to think in reverse so that on glass the last element you would paint is the sky - on canvas the first element you would paint is the sky.
Your painting has to be done in stages, so you would paint the foreground and then set aside to dry. This may take a day or two.
In the meantime you would start another painting until your first stage on your first painting has dried. You can now start painting the second stage of your first painting. This would be the middle ground and elements behind the foreground elements you have already painted. These are now set aside again to dry. You can now continue with one of your other paintings that are now dry. You would continue to build up all the elements of your picture and set aside to dry. Your final stages are to paint the background to your foreground elements and finally your sky. Your finished painting is now set aside to dry. When dry protect the painting with a backing sheet.
You may be able to see from this image that I do not always stick rigorously to my drawing. This is because I feel the composition is better if slightly rearranged or repositioned.
